WARNING: Week-long blitz on speeding drivers

Devon and Cornwall Poilce officers are joining their colleagues across Europe in a week-long speed enforcement operation.

During the campaign, co-ordinated by the European Traffic Police Network (TISPOL), officers will use a number of speed detection methods across all types of road.

The purpose of the operation is to raise awareness of the dangers of speeding, and to remind drivers of the benefits for all road users of driving at speeds that are both legal and appropriate.

“We urge all drivers to challenge their own attitude to speeding,” says TISPOL President Koen Ricour.

“Anyone who still believes that speeding is a trivial offence needs to think again. That’s because excessive or inappropriate speed has a singularly devastating impact on the safety of road users, increasing both the risk of a crash and the severity of the consequences.

“It is estimated that speeding contributes to as many as one third of all crashes resulting in death, and is the most important contributory factor to road deaths and serious injuries.

“All across Europe this week, police officers will be ensuring that drivers respect the different speed limits. In cases where drivers choose to ignore these limits, officers will take appropriate steps to enforce the law.”

A similar TISPOL operation in August 2013 saw a total of more than 720,000 detections in 28 countries across Europe.

Richard Pryce, Roads Policing Unit Inspector for Devon and Cornwall Police, explained the different ways that speed contributes to collisions.

He said: “Invariably, speed has an influence in most collisions whether it is excessive which means just travelling too fast, or inappropriate which is travelling too fast for the circumstances or road conditions. Speed directly influences your stopping distance and so many collisions, especially rear-end impacts which are frequent, are easily avoidable simply by motorists applying the appropriate stopping distance from the car ahead relative to the speed at which they are travelling.

“A road may have a 30mph speed limit but this does not mean that is necessarily safe to drive at that speed when negotiating a bend or approaching a hazard.  A speed limit is just that – a limit.  It’s not to be seen as a target to achieve or a speed to maintain.  It is the limit and the maximum speed which may be driven only when the conditions and circumstances allow.”

Inspector Pryce added that weather conditions must be considered in relation to speed: “Inclement weather when travelling on faster roads is also a consideration, as the 60 or 70mph speed limit may not be appropriate due to the conditions.  Standing water can result in vehicles aqua-planing where the vehicle’s speed is perhaps within the limit but too high for the conditions.”